1st time smoking fish on the Traeger...any advice is welcome. (photos)

[BartenderAL72]

A friend of mine shot a couple kingfish yesterday and gave them to me. 45lbs of meat. These pictured below have been brining last night (9hrs) in a brown sugar, kosher salt, garlic powder and cayenne mixture (wet brine). I have the rest brining for longer periods to see how it works with a longer brine - half in a dry brine and half wet.

I trimmed the blood line on the fillets picture below, and removed the bones and cut the fillets into more manageable portions...thinking that the smaller portions would smoke better than these large fillets.

I plan to test that theory by leaving a few of them larger in size.

I now have the fan on them and plan to dry them out for a few hours.

I was thinking of using Hickory pellets in the hopper and a mix of hickory and apple or pecan in the A-MAZ-N tube.

I know slow and low is the motto for fish, right?
I'm wondering if my grill can go low enough or if I have to toggle it on and off to keep the temps low enough.
Anybody have any advice for me - I sure would appreciate it.
Thanks,
Al

 

[sawhorseray]

No Cure #1 in the brine Al? I don't know kingfish, fresh or salt water, no sodium nitrite could be risky. RAY

 

[BartenderAL72]

No Cure #1 in the brine Al? I don't know kingfish, fresh or salt water, no sodium nitrite could be risky. RAY

I don't know anything about Cure#1 (guess I'll be reading up on that). All I know is I have the recipes from Florida Sportsman, and a couple more I've found online. And I've also hit up a few captains I hold in high regard, quizzing them as to what they do, and it's never been mentioned to me before. I've made this before, just never on my pellet grill.

Edit- oh, it's the pink salt. Gotcha Ray! I have some of that leftover from the time we made bacon. I'm just planing to make a fish dip to be eaten in a matter of hours, 1 day max...then freeze the rest of the smoked fish to be used as needed. You think I need it?

 

[sawhorseray]

I'd lean toward running that by Daveomak. Dave has a wealth of knowledge concerning food safety, you really want to steer clear of botulism. I think he's the link right under yours at the moment. Ask Dave a question, you'll get a answer. RAY

 

[jcam222]

In for the ride as I want to smoke some catfish this year.

 

[sawhorseray]

I sent Dave a PM, he'll be checking in sooner or later. RAY

 

[BartenderAL72]

Should I be worried about over crowding? My gut instinct is yes... but my desire to make them all fit overrode it.
This Traeger is running around 190-200 in the Smoke setting.

 

[sawhorseray]

Wow, that baby is really packed! Not being a pellet guy I have no idea or opinion on capacity. I have a electric smoker I smoke my bacon, sausage, and hams on tho I never exceed their capacity recommendation. What IT are you smoking the fish to Al? Good luck and keep us posted. RAY

 

[BartenderAL72]

What IT are you smoking the fish to Al? Good luck and keep us posted. RAY

I'm thinking 140

 

[BartenderAL72]

Well, it tasted good. It'll make a nice fish dip, and that was my goal. If hunks of super smokey fish for eating on it's own were the goal, then I would still have much to learn. This works for me. It's got me thinking, that's for sure.

Edit: The smoked fish tastes really good. Wife loved it. Seems the longer it sat on the counter, the more intense the smoke taste became. Maybe I was too enveloped in smoke to really taste it.

 

[BartenderAL72]

Digging around here and found an old thread with a recipe today, and decided to dust it off. Really, really good. Made it to spec but doubled it. Then after tasting, I added a smidge more fish. Awesome. Highly recommend. I might add some jalapeño to my portion.

1 1/2 Cups Smoked Fish, Crumbed
1/2 Cup Milk
8 Ounces Light Cream Cheese, Softened
1/4 Cup Onion, Finely Minced
1 Stalk Celery, Finely Minced
1 Tablespoon Parsley, Finely Minced
3 Teaspoons Sweet Pickle Relish
1/2 Teaspoon Lemon Juice
1 Teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Cayenne, to taste
salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

1. Combine smoked fish and milk in a medium bowl
2. Cover and Chill for 30 minutes - 1 hour
3. Stir in rest of the ingredients
4. Cover and chill for 2-3 hours
5. Serve with crackers or tasty bread

Smoked fish dip

I've got some dolphin fish fillets that I'm looking to smoke and make into fish dip. Anyone have any recipes for smoked fish dip?

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[sawhorseray]

Sure looks good to me. so does the smoked fish. I did salmon smoked for about 40 years on a Big Chief without cure, nobody ever got sick. These days seems you can't have too much faith making a salad, much less smoked anything. I'll chooses to stay on the safe side, I'm too old to make too many more mistakes. Like, RAY

 

[BartenderAL72]

Sure looks good to me. so does the smoked fish. I did salmon smoked for about 40 years on a Big Chief without cure, nobody ever got sick. These days seems you can't have too much faith making a salad, much less smoked anything. I'll chooses to stay on the safe side, I'm too old to make too many more mistakes. Like, RAY

I hear you Ray, and I can respect that viewpoint. Thanks for the heads up buddy! Much appreciated. I'll suppose what I'll do with the the rest of the fish I have brining in the fridge, is make a new brine with Cure #1 in it, and let it finish soaking in there. My grill cooks at around 175 as the lowest temp, with the average being closer to 195. Most all my cook today was between 180-205. I wonder if that qualifies me as being in the unsafe zone?

 

[sawhorseray]

With a little luck Dave will chime in tomorrow morning, like me, most days, he's a earlybird. Dave will know if you are in the safe zone, or not. The whole thing about adding a little Cure#1 takes all the worry away! The first day of botulism poisoning a guy might think he's just got the flu, hell, we're men, tough it out. The second day if there's no one to drive you to a doc, you just lay there and suffer because you are too sick to drive yourself. The third day if left untreated? There is no fourth day, I use Cure #1 in the sausage I make that I want to smoke, and the bacon and hams that I cure and smoke, and of course the lox. I stay in the middle of the road on most recommendations concerning amounts for bacon and sausage, and don't much give things a second thought anymore. I will tell you I've had guys give me packs of smoked sausage to try out and when I've brought up sodium nitrite and received a blank stare, I just toss the stuff in the garbage. We only get to go around once, nobody gets out alive. RAY

 

[BartenderAL72]

Roger that, loud and clear! Thanks man, I really do appreciate it. I never even considered the possibilities of botulism with my cooking. I'm crazy careful with handling chicken, and also proper refrigeration, but now I plan to further my defenses. Good looking out, buddy.

 

[daveomak]

Morning all.... Seems botulism is more prevalent in fish... maybe my imagination but, reading the Food Safety News daily, it is something to think about...
Anywho, botulism lives in the soil... gets washed into creeks and rivers and lakes with the rain etc... Finally ending up in the oceans... I figure it attaches to stuff in the water... grasses, kelp... Plankton may eat it... who knows ??? so it is definitely in the food chain....
It's been found in the guts and gills of fish... it's been found on your kitchen counter... transported, I assume, from vegetables etc. It's one of those things that can get about anywhere...
It's been found in honey... Don't feed honey to infants under 2 years of age or something like that... Their guts need to develop to a more mature state to effectively combat bacteria...
That leaves me to believe, non compromised adults, can effectively combat a small amount of the
bacteria... I don't know how much that is or how to measure it so, I don't take any chances... I add cure#1 to anything that may be contaminated... fish is a no brainer to me...
FDA allows up to 200 Ppm nitrite is fish... 1.45 grams cure#1 per pound ....

 

[BartenderAL72]

So...I have smoked fish coming out of my ears, and that's a good problem to have because i've wanted to test out multiple recipes i've bookmarked over the years. Just made this one, and it's wonderful. In my opinion...much better than the recipe above. Why not make them both and decide for yourself?

Captain Shane’s Smoked Fish Dip- From the Stock Island Marina Village

• 1 pound smoked fish (I used Kingfish)
• Equal parts sour cream, cream cheese, Dukes mayonnaise—approx. ½ cup each
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire
• 1 teaspoon horseradish
• 2 key limes—more if needed (I used 1 persian lime)
• ½ cup red onion, diced
• 3-4 scallion stalks with leaves, chopped
• Sweet red peppers, chopped—to your liking
• Liquid Smoke (optional - and I did not use)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Tiger Sauce—for garnish

 

[BartenderAL72]

I kept a 2nd batch of fish in longer brines. 1 wet and 1 dry. Dry brine resulted in a much firmer texture. Brined them for 50 hrs to be exact. Seemed a little much, but read that a few guys would leave them in the entire weekend, and a buddy here locally does the same. Dried them with towels and onto a wire rack in the fridge for 36hrs to air dry and form pellicle. Then smoked em today with Hickory in the hopper and Apple/Hickory in the A-MAZ-N tube. The wet brine fish took longer. pulled them at 160. This batch had a much deeper color...about 6.5 hours at 185-200. Much saltier fish... but I speculate this is going to make a killer dip. To be continued.

 

[39Buick]

Soooooo how was the dip?

jcam222 did you ever do your catfish?

 

[BartenderAL72]

Hey 39Buik,
I've since smoked another 2 batches of fish, made many pints of the fish dip, and tried many fish dip recipes. The one I posted above is my favorite thus far. Served withTiger sauce or Tapatillo, pickled Jalps, and ritz crackers. Sooooo good.